


Until My Dying Day

by tangerinabina_de_archanea



Category: Moulin Rouge! (2001)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, so glad that the movie ends right after the finale and nothing else happens :), yup! that's it! god i love these two and they deserve their happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-16 01:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21499675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangerinabina_de_archanea/pseuds/tangerinabina_de_archanea
Summary: The finale of Moulin Rouge!, as seen through the eyes of Christian and Satine
Relationships: Christian/Satine (Moulin Rouge!)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Until My Dying Day

**Author's Note:**

> *peggle two voice* Happy Birthday... TWO!! Thank you, dearest roommate, for introducing me to Moulin Rouge and thus ruining my life and saddling me with unnecessary emotions. I love it so much

Christian and Satine cannot be grand about their love, not as they would like to. They must steal glances from each other in the open, and kisses when just out of sight, and it is only when they are wholly alone that they can love each other as they wish.

Christian loves the range of Satine’s smile. Around others, it is subtle, but there- a perfectly controlled smile befitting of an actress. As they begin to slip away, her control slips, and she is unrestrained and beautiful and free. The facades are gone, and her smile is brighter than the dawn, and her laughter purer than sunshine.

He loves how she is quieter in private. Not to say that she always is, or that the quiet is better- there have been many times where she has laughed loudly as she pleased, and it is the most beautiful sound in the world- but when she is loud, it is neither a spectacle for the world to see nor forced. It is simply Satine being Satine, not the most highly prized courtesan of Moulin Rouge, not the sparkling seductress, not the woman hiding behind a mask. Just Satine, beautiful Satine, Satine who is not afraid to snort when she laughs, who is not afraid to tell him about her doubts, who is not afraid to be herself. She exudes confidence on the stage, but her quiet confidence is stronger, and when she is loud, it is by choice, not by necessity.

Satine loves the way that Christian looks at her, even when he shouldn’t be. Oh, if only the world could see the love in his eyes, they could never doubt that they are in love, but she supposes that is for the best. They must stay in hiding, but the intensity of his gaze threatens to betray them every day, and she loves it. When they are in private his gaze is just as intense, just as passionate, yet it also softens more often, when he tells her of his dreams for them together. He looks at her the way an artist might regard a fine painting, yet with a hint of despair that they could never capture such an image on their own canvas.

She loves his voice and how he has always been quiet, and yet finds his voice matching the intensity in his eyes when he sings to her. He grows in confidence when he sings, and she gets lost in the melodies and words. His favorite songs, however, are without a doubt the softest ones, when his voice is roughened by the haze of disuse upon waking in the morning, and he pulls her closer and kisses her cheek as his voice caresses her ear. 

Now those eyes have looked upon her with nothing but betrayal and heartbreak, and Satine has heard that beautiful voice thank her with half-stifled sobs for curing him of his ridiculous obsession with love, and she wishes she could find the words to tell him that his obsession was never ridiculous. Love is like oxygen, and like oxygen, she cannot live without it. Without him.

She cannot find the words, and yet she knows them, as surely as if they were etched on her heart, and yet she feels she cannot breathe when he walks away from her, and her voice is quiet and broken as her lips form the words. No sound comes out. Nothing can reach him in time before he is gone forever, and then-

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return!”

She dares to turn around, hoping against hope to see him, and there he is, stopped by Toulouse’s words, his back to her, and those beautiful eyes turned away, and suddenly the words are on her tongue for the world to hear, the words that he wrote for her, so that however bad things were, they may remember their love.

“ _Never knew I could feel like this… It’s like I’ve never seen the sky before._ ”

He starts walking away again, and she raises her voice, desperate for her song to reach him. How could it not, when it comes from her heart? And yet, he does not stop. How could he not when she is laying her soul bare before him? 

_“Want to vanish inside your kiss…”_

He stops, and she knows she has him, but his shoulders are shaking, and he looks ready to leave again at any moment. 

“ _Every day I’m loving you, more and more.”_

She mustn’t let him, she can’t let him, because if he leaves now, she knows that she will well and truly die before she is even dead.

“ _Listen to my heart! Can you hear it sing?”_

Yes, he can, and she knows it, because he turns to look at her, and those beautiful eyes are full of pain and grief and disbelief and confusion and love and so many other things, and she wishes dearly she could bring back the passionate eyes she once knew. Perhaps with her song, she can.

“ _Come back to me, and forgive everything!”_

The full force of her emotions are behind the words, begging for him to believe her and forgive her, for she only did it to protect him, only did it because she loves him. It exhausts her, and she pauses to catch her breath, and for a moment his eyes soften before the pain returns. 

“ _Seasons may change, winter to spring…”_

She has him now, and part of her tells her to sing out the next part as loudly as she can, but she doesn’t. Their love is not a spectacle. It is not a show. It is an intimate thing, not of the cabaret or the theater, but of a cozy bedroom and their hearts beating in time to one another and their arms winding around each other. It is soft and intimate, and so are her words.

“I love you… _‘til the end of time._ ”

Christian doesn’t need to hear her say it loudly. He needs to hear it said softly and sincerely, echoing the dozens of times that she’s said it in his arms and at his side, whether it be by the light of the morning or the darkness of night. These quiet words speak louder than anything she’s ever said before.

Christian hears her words, hears her song, ringing in his ears and pounding in his heart, and his response is driven like a flood from within, and he doesn’t even have to think to remember the song they have sung so many times.

“ _Come what may…_ ”

There is her smile, her lovely smile, so genuine and relieved, and even despite the tears in her eyes, it’s the happiest he’s ever seen her. Does she know that he would trade everything in the world to see that smile forever and make her happier each day?

_“Come what may…”_

She steps towards him, and he feels his feet carrying him to her, unbidden by his mind but pulled by his heart. He feels that he can’t reach her fast enough, and yet, it is like moving in a dream, when the ground falls beneath him and no matter how he runs, he is barely moving. 

“ _Come what may… Come what may!”_

His voice and his steps grow together in confidence, like a vine flowering along a trellis, and he feels everything pouring into his words- his pain, his relief, his utter adoration for her- and the release is as cathartic as it is powerful.

“ _I_ _will love you!”_

_“I will love you!”_

Her voice intertwines with his, the harmonies coming to them as naturally as breathing, and while this is not their first duet together, it is certainly the most beautiful. Their words dance around each other with steps that they have grown so familiar with, dipping and turning and careening gracefully through the air, a symphony of love and promises of eternity. 

“ _Until my dying day! Come what may!”_

_“Come what may!”_

_“Come what may!”_

The music swells beneath their voices, and then it stops. In the moment of silence, one could hear a pin drop, and yet the silence is not empty. It is full to bursting with love, and as Christian places his hands on her waist and his forehead against hers, all he can think of is Satine, and all he can feel is the sob rising in his throat at the thought that she is again in his arms, and he can scarcely find the breath to sing with her again.

“ _I_ _will love you… until my dying…”_

The stage erupts into chaos and song, yet even during it Christian can barely tear his eyes away from Satine. Everything around them is inconsequential. All that matters is the other, gazing into their eyes and finally sharing their love with the world. 

“ _I will love you… Yes, I will love you! I will love you until my dying day!”_

The curtain closes and their eyes meet as petals fall upon them, in red and white, and as the roar of the audience sounds around them, they kiss briefly but tenderly. In that single moment there is infinity, and it is a perfect happy ending. 


End file.
